Don't know if I am allowed to say it, or if it's been said already, but a friend of mine who works local toy store told me, with permission of his boss, that the European release date for the LotR sets to be mid-august.

Dunno how many people asked for the european release date of the LOTR-sets. In the city, where i live, there is one shop selling those sets (and monster fighters as well) and i got another for birthday, so there are at least two shops selling those sets in germany.

So i suppose there are several shops in germany (an i think in the rest of europe as well) selling those sets, no matter what date the cataloges give.

Btw i got both 2010 and 2011 wave of kingdoms one or two month before the official release date just by using google.

Regarding the sets themselves: i got the uruk-hai-army and gandalf. The latter is tiny bit more complex than the usual cart, so there is a bit more to it, than is shown on the box (if you look at the parts inventory). The army-set on the other hand is basically just a gray wall, but i love the orcs and their accessories. If it hadn't been discounted it would have been a expensive parts-pack.

The best thing of LOTR is clearly the new horse design, an i see some good uses for the new rear up function. (but ill save it for CCCX)

SevFalcon wrote:Anybody having quality issues on the bricks in the LotR sets so far? I know there's reporting of minifig issues, but just wanted to see if the quality of the bricks are also impacted....

I have two LotR sets--Attack on Weathertop and Uruk-hai Army--and regarding both of them I have no quality complaints. And that goes for both the bricks and the minifigs.

I mean, we'll see how they wear over time, but there were not printing issues, no cracked bricks, no obviously inferior plastic.

SevFalcon wrote:Anybody having quality issues on the bricks in the LotR sets so far? I know there's reporting of minifig issues, but just wanted to see if the quality of the bricks are also impacted....

I have two LotR sets--Attack on Weathertop and Uruk-hai Army--and regarding both of them I have no quality complaints. And that goes for both the bricks and the minifigs.

I mean, we'll see how they wear over time, but there were not printing issues, no cracked bricks, no obviously inferior plastic.

Ditto Formendacil's comments. About a month ago at the Mall of America legostore I bought Uruk Hai Army, Mines of Moria and Helm's deep. All minifigs and bricks in excellent condition.

SevFalcon wrote:Anybody having quality issues on the bricks in the LotR sets so far? I know there's reporting of minifig issues, but just wanted to see if the quality of the bricks are also impacted....

I have two LotR sets--Attack on Weathertop and Uruk-hai Army--and regarding both of them I have no quality complaints. And that goes for both the bricks and the minifigs.

I mean, we'll see how they wear over time, but there were not printing issues, no cracked bricks, no obviously inferior plastic.

I agree. I bought and built the Orc Forge and Gandalf Arrives, and I didn't have any quality concerns. I'm normally quite picky about these things.

However, the first thing I did when I opened the forge was shine the light-up brick right in my face (do NOT do this!), so maybe I was still partially blinded and missed obvious flaws.

I've found a quality issue with all the Gandalf arrives sets I've opened. 7 sets so far.. When you put the horse together you get a 1x2 brick and a 1x2 plate in brown to go on the back of the horse. The problem is that the plate matches the brown colour of the horse while the 1x2 brown brick is in a completely different shade of brown to the rest. The horse ends up with a darker brown square patch along its side when assembled.Has anyone else noticed this on theirs?

I've found a quality issue with all the Gandalf arrives sets I've opened. 7 sets so far.. When you put the horse together you get a 1x2 brick and a 1x2 plate in brown to go on the back of the horse.The problem is that the plate matches the brown colour of the horse while the 1x2 brown brick is in a completely different shade of brown to the rest. The horse ends up with a darker brown square patch along its side when assembled.Has anyone else noticed this on theirs?

Please contact LEGO about this. They will want to know so they can address it. They may ask you for the number printed on the inside of the box and where you ordered it, but they need to know so they can fix it. I know it seems like a small thing, but I once contacted them about a box that smelled like kerosene. They paid to have the box shipped to them so they could investigate. They do really want to know.

So back to the discussion at hand. I broke down and bought my first LOTR set, Gandalf's cart and I was rather pleased with it. It has great parts, plus I like his beard. Today I got the spider set...I was avoiding this because I really do not like spiders, but I was at the Walmart and decided to splurge. I'm hoping it will be rather good.

I've been finding that the LOTR sets aren't as widely available in stores as some other lego lines, like SW or City or whatever. Has anyone else noticed this? I've visited Walmarts & Targets in multiple states over the past few weeks, and found that in about half of the stores they have either none, or in the case of Target, just the exclusive set. This was mostly in smaller towns, but even in a huge Target in Phoenix they only had 3 sets besides the exclusive.